Location: Underway
Today we left Ocho Rios for Roatan in Honduras. But of course, we couldn’t leave port without a quick Oceanography lesson with the Laurie followed by a couple “How-To” presentations. Kimmery, the mighty wordsmith, gave the group a lesson on poetry and then led us on a path of self-discovery by asking us to write “I Believe” poems. After a few brave students volunteered to read their masterpieces, we made our way on deck for a great session of backflips off the bowsprit with the tenacious Sadie. Many got it on their first try, while some struggled to make even slight turns, but no matter what happened, we all looked awe-inspiring in the many videos and photos that were taken of us. For me, I’ve never even jumped into the water headfirst (forwards or backward), so my logic was that I should be able to do a backflip on my first try. However, I was proven wrong, as I was only able to turn halfway (180 degrees) on my first jump. I did a 3/4 turn on my next dive landing on my chest, then a 7/8 turn on my third try, so according to this trend, I should keep getting exponentially close to doing a backflip, but never actually fully doing one. While this realization caused me much disappointment, I didn’t have much time to despair, because lunch was brought up and it was a scrumptious meal of Gumbo. Following lunch, we did a quick passage prep, and before we knew it, we were sailing the high seas westward to the enchanting land of Roatan. Our journey will take us 550 miles, so all prepared ourselves for four days of underway living: rockin’ lectures (literally), late-night parties (night watches), horror movies (White Squall), and wet t-shirt contests (our showers). For those who come out alive, we’re looking at some solid days of diving in the underwater lands of Roatan. See you all there.